Interview Archive: Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost)

This isn’t actually one of my interviews, though it was the second I hosted on the old site. It was from issue one of Rock ‘n’ Roll Popular (December 1995), and translated from the Spanish text by a nice guy called Luis Tercero Valverde.

As such, some of the text reads a little differently than you’d expect having been translated one way and then the other. I’ve tried to correct the (minimal) spelling mistakes, though.

Where have you just come from?

The south of France, but we have been touring all around Europe. It´s been great. We have made six weeks around Europe and three in South America with Ozzy Osbourne.

With Ozzy? How was it touring with him?

It was fantastic. The shows were incredible and and the people there turned completely mad.

The Black Sabbath influence is evident on you. How did it feel playing with such a great character like him?

He is a grand bud like Geezer Butler.

I think your first album was released very precipitately.

Yeah, you are right. Lost Paradise is more like a demo on vinyl than a proper album.

I even remember a live video that came out, it was horrendous, with themes from the first album only. What’s the story behind that video? (Live Death, 1990)

Oh, yeah, that video came out without our permission. We didn’t even know that they were selling it out until the time we saw it. We didn’t know anything about this video. It came out before the album! We tried to stop it but we couldn’t do anything.

Do you consider youself pioneers of this style? What do you think about the bands that go in your gothic-sinister way?

It’s Ok…Yeah, My Dying Bride is a clear example…We know them and they are good people. They started by copying us but now they’ve got their own identity.

The English press has waited for your new album to have some success and dedicate it the first eulogies. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage if this type of publications trust you?

What the people say about this kind of press it’s true, about the bands that hit the top and later they dedicate the whole magazine to destroy them. The trust we have received, it’s because of our new album and before they used to ignore us. When we started to be known in Europe and worldwide they begun to get interested on us, but not because they wanted to, just because the people asked for it. And I love that! I like watching how reluctantly the press has to do it. It´s the same thing with New Model Army, they are from our city too.

What is your paradise lost?

I don’t know. I haven’t got…

Do the people from your city still try to stop you from entering their pubs?